Wednesday, January 2
Hanmi Presbytery
Nongeographic
In 2011 Hanmi Presbytery launched a partnership in mission with the Jeonju Presbytery in Korea. As part of the partnership, six Hanmi Presbytery teaching and ruling elders visited Jeonju. The visitors were impressed by the city’s strong cultural heritage and learned that Jeonju has a greater concentration of Christians than most other Korean cities. They also visited Christian historical sites, places where early missionaries had tended the sick and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Hanmi team with Jeonju leaders.
In November 1898, medical missionary Mattie B. Ingold graduated from the Woman’s Medical College of Baltimore with the highest grade on her final medical exam. She was sent to Korea and started her medical work in Jeonju. Her mission philosophy was, “I have received it freely, so I shall offer it freely.” She served in humility and with generosity of soul. In that first year, she treated over 10,000 people. She began what would become a 700-bed teaching hospital, the Jesus Hospital (or Presbyterian Medical Center).
It was sobering to visit the grounds of this hospital where many Presbyterian missionaries to Korea are buried, including Rev. Lonnie Harrison, Rev. David C. Rankin, and Rev. W. M. Junkin and his three children, Sidney, Francis, and George.
The representatives from Hanmi Presbytery had such close fellowship in Christ with the leadership of Jeonju Presbytery that further visits were planned. In February 2012, Hanmi Presbytery welcomed 16 students and two adult leaders from Jeonju Presbytery. This year Hanmi Presbytery will send U.S.-born Korean American college students to Jeonju to learn and share.
The presbytery serves 2,383 members of 23 congregations and three fellowships.
Let us join in prayer for:
Elder Jung Nam Lee, member, Presbyterian Mission Agency Board
Presbytery Staff
Rev. Dr. In Yang, executive presbyter
Rev. Paul Seungchul Kang, stated clerk
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Gwen Holmes Abrams, Board of Pensions
Rona Agnew, Board of Pensions
Elder Loyda Aja, Office of the General Assembly
Let us pray
Gracious God, thank you for calling mission workers to Jeonju over 100 years ago. We are grateful for their lives of service and witness. Grant us your guidance, and bless the partnership between Jeonju and Hanmi presbyteries, that through this relationship their impact would be multiplied. Amen.
Daily Lectionary
Morning Psalms 48; 147:1-11
First Reading Genesis 12:1-7
Second Reading Hebrews 11:1-12
Gospel Reading John 6:35-42, 48-51
Evening Psalms 9; 29
